Help Haugy with his amp setup

[haugy]

Ha ha ha ha Mike, so true.

You know what I discovered? That underneath the floor of that storage bin, it's OPEN. Completely open, and even has carpet running underneath from the bow. So open that I actually crawled in from the bow, and was underneath the storage area, and you couldn't see me.

If I rebuild this sucker, that floor is gone. I could drop in a whole sub, amp rack, and still have room in there.

[Okie Boarder]

That's exactly what I did haugy. The floor of the storage was removed and I also removed the vertical wall seperating the space under the observer seat from that area. It is open on the side to the bilge and side of the cooler, so you may need to consider putting in a panel that serves as a wall to close it off so you don't have things falling into the bilge.

[haugy]

Okie, did you do this when you rebuilt it or after? I kind of want to do it now.

Only problem is that's where we store our bags and clothes. That would turn it into a bottomless pit in there and hard to find your bags after cruising.

[haugy]

Another question:

Amp rack? Mounting device? The points where I will be putting the amps is very hard to mount to, fiberglass. I'm thinking of creating an open air type frame (think square) that I can cover with carpet and mount to the fiberglass wall. Then mount the amp to it. This will allow me to run wires behind the amp (don't know if that's good or bad), and to give some air flow behind the amp (would notch out the frame to allow air movement).

Or should I just mount it and go? The wires are already run behind the panel wall so you really don't get any benefit of hidden wires. So, it it worth it? Or should I just mount them, tuck and tie my wires and be done with it?

The only con I see is that I lose even more tight space by spacing the amps away from the walls more.

[Okie Boarder]

Okie, did you do this when you rebuilt it or after? I kind of want to do it now.

Only problem is that's where we store our bags and clothes. That would turn it into a bottomless pit in there and hard to find your bags after cruising.

I did it during the rebuild when I had the top cap off and could get under it. You could do it now, just won't be as easy. If you look back through the pics I posted you can kind of see how open it is. You can also see the panel I added next to the bilge/cooler that closed it in (you'll see the vent hose and battery cables coming in top right in the photo). We put our clothes and bags in there too. I actually have both batteries there then a couple plastic totes with jumper cables, oil, a tool kit, etc. We pile our other stuff on top of that, plus we have a completely open area under the observer seat. If you want more pics, let me know...I have tons!

[jonyb]

Another question:

Amp rack? Mounting device? The points where I will be putting the amps is very hard to mount to, fiberglass. I'm thinking of creating an open air type frame (think square) that I can cover with carpet and mount to the fiberglass wall. Then mount the amp to it. This will allow me to run wires behind the amp (don't know if that's good or bad), and to give some air flow behind the amp (would notch out the frame to allow air movement).

Or should I just mount it and go? The wires are already run behind the panel wall so you really don't get any benefit of hidden wires. So, it it worth it? Or should I just mount them, tuck and tie my wires and be done with it?

The only con I see is that I lose even more tight space by spacing the amps away from the walls more.

Cut out some short 3/4" MDF blocks and fiberglass those in with resin and fiberglass mat. Once that's dry, you can screw an amp rack in to it.

[Okie Boarder]

I've seen what jonyb is suggesting done and that's a good idea. Both of my amps are mounted on the fore and aft panels so they back up to the bow and observer seat, respectively. I built an amp rack for the two amps for in boats and sub and mounted the tower amp directly to the panel. Many ways to skin a cat, depending on what outcome you're looking for.

[sybrmike]

Don't know if it'll help your plan of attack, but here's a pic of the underside of my storage pod. This was after I had reconfigured the bracing under the playpen, glassed in a tower support pad, and added the vertical piece of treated ply to separate the relocated batteries from the remaining cavernous storage beneath the pod (I'm using the space for a sac). My storage pod is an "L" shaped molded black plastic liner (like the ski and bow storage lockers) that's glassed from the backside with a layer of coremat. You can see the dark seams where it bonds to the hull. It would be easy to remove the whole thing with the cap off - just cut the seams. But with the cap on, it'd be hard to reach the top seam up under the windhield so Okie's method of cutting the bottom might be the way to go.

storage pod.jpg

[haugy]

Cut out some short 3/4" MDF blocks and fiberglass those in with resin and fiberglass mat. Once that's dry, you can screw an amp rack in to it.

Craaaap. I was hoping to avoid that kind of stuff. Where could I procure enough to do that? I only need to do one side, behind the front seats. The side amp wall is hollow on the back side. I'm going to run bolts through that with washers.

[whelchel86]

Haugy, I have another suggestion for the hollow/thin side where you are talking about using bolts and washers and all. I used snaptogglers from Lowes. They were great for me since any other idea I had would require 2 people for install/removal. They were a life saver and have held up great.